AMA Group Limited

AMA Group Limited

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AMA Group LimitedUS flagOther OTC
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Q4 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptAugust 20, 2026

Operator

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the AMA Group FY '26 Results Call. [Operator Instructions].

I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Ray Smith-Roberts, Group Managing Director.

Raymond Smith-Roberts

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking the time to join us for this presentation of the AMA Group FY '26 Year-end Results.

For those joining us via webcast, you should be able to view the presentation on your screen. If you are joining us by teleconference, you should have access to our investor presentation via the ASX platform or our company website.

I will begin today's presentation with a business update, along with the details of our portfolio business results. I'll then hand over to our Group CFO, Domenic Romanelli, who will take you through the group financials.

I will then return to cover the outlook. We will be taking questions throughout the webcast facility today.

You can submit these at any time during the presentation, and we will address them at the end. So referring to our presentation, let's begin on Slide 4.

I'm very pleased to report that AMA Group produced a record revenue of $1.039 billion in FY '26, leading to a full year FY '26 pre-AASB 16 normalized EBITDA of $68 million. This is up 8.6% on FY '25 and reflects growth in the majority of our businesses despite Q4, which is traditionally the strongest quarter for repair volumes being affected by elevated fuel prices and public transport concessions.

Operating cash flows after lease payments were $32.8 million for the financial year, despite higher income tax payments of $12.5 million in FY '26, an increase of $11.6 million on FY '25. This is a solid result, which was delivered for the full year, and it's headlined by a few things: continued strong performance in our Capital SMART network, which achieved an EBITDA margin of 10.6%, strong growth in our Specialist division ACM Parts went from a significant loss in FY '25 to a $2.3 million EBITDA in FY '26, reflecting its stronger performance and operating improvements.

Now to talk about our businesses. Capital SMART achieved an EBITDA of $51.9 million in FY '26, down from $58.4 million, but certainly in line with expectations due to the higher incentives obtained in the prior year.

AMA Collision showed volume, revenue and EBITDA growth with continued focus on process improvements to enhance margins. Our Wales business performance was impacted by softer work provisions of large crash repair work.

But pleasingly, bucking the trend, Q4 of FY '26 was the strongest quarter of our financial year. Our Specialist business has seen considerable growth and improved financial performance with increased capability and capacity for mechanical work and ADAS calibrations along with continued improvement in our Prestige sites.

ACM Parts is now operating at a consistent and profitable manner, reflecting stronger performance and operating improvements. AMA's vertical integration, combining broader vehicle repair services with automotive parts sourcing and supply enables greater control over our repair quality, turnaround times and costs, providing us with a key unique competitive advantage now with a much wider value chain.

Underlying financial performance improvement and key strategic growth will continue into FY '27 and beyond and will be covered later when we talk in the outlook. Now to Slide 5 on Capital SMART.

Revenue was steady in FY '26 at $490.7 million. Normalized FY '26 pre-AASB 16 EBITDA was $51.9 million, down on FY '26 as outlined.

Capital SMART continues to deliver improved customer outcomes in conjunction with our key customer, Suncorp. We achieved our EBITDA margin target of 10.6%.

Strong cost control measures and productivity initiatives have preserved these margins, offsetting the impact from volume incentives received in the prior period. There has been a reduction in the number of drivable repairs since the start of the geopolitical events in the Middle East, which commenced in March.

This has reduced the amount of drivable work, largely from customers delaying minor repairs and with some reduced road use. We opened 3 new sites in FY '26, one in South Australia, one in New South Wales and one in Tasmania.

These were all areas where the network was underrepresented. We also closed 2 sites, one in Metro Melbourne and one in New Zealand.

We will continue to grow, refresh and rationalize the network with customer needs and market opportunities. There is a continued focus to improve the effectiveness of our highly skilled team through targeted initiatives in systems, processes, tools and technology.

Capital SMART in FY '27 will seek further improvement in growth from capacity management opportunities pursued by extending our customer base and service offerings and through these targeted initiatives in systems and process tools and technology, as mentioned. Turning to Slide 6 on AMA Collision.

AMA Collision remains on the path of improved network optimization and capability, delivering higher volume revenue and earnings than the prior financial year. Revenue increased by $19.6 million to $379.7 million, an increase of 5.4% and our normalized FY '26 pre-AASB 16 EBITDA of $10.6 million is up 43.2% on FY '25.

This was achieved on the back of continued focus on and investment in the network footprint and optimization with various expansions, relocations and rationalizations completed, and we have more to come in the new financial year. Further improvement will continue in FY '27, driven by increased margins and volumes by the business focusing on improving the team's capability by embedding best practice operational models delivering consistent systems, processes and behaviors.

Current economic conditions are shifting available work mix opportunities with a skew to more non-drivable complex repairs. Pleasingly, insurance relationships continue to improve and strengthen with volume and market share growth seen across most major insurers.

As said, further improvement will continue in FY '27, driving increased margins and volumes. Now to Slide 7.

Our Wales business delivered a normalized pre-AASB 16 EBITDA of $7.7 million in FY '26, down $2.8 million from FY '25. Wales experienced a shift in work mix through this year with reduced claim volumes and large-scale repairs as well as the deferral of nonurgent repairs impacting growth, particularly in New South Wales and Western Australia.

These factors are expected to abate with more large-scale repairs expected to return in the next 12 months, together with other revenue opportunities growing. We have already seen evidence of this in the last quarter, leading to the expectations that Wales will continue to grow in FY '27.

The business continues to strengthen its relationship with both market-leading insurers and smaller insurers who are seeking a preferred repairer as well as continue to expand its service to fleet and new customers with different types of services and repairs, including partnerships with new heavy vehicle market entrants, machinery, motorhome and specialist equipment suppliers. On to Slide 8, our Specialist business.

The Specialist business achieved strong growth with a further runway to expand. Revenue in FY '26 was $65.6 million, an increase of $9.3 million or 16.5%.

Normalized FY '26 EBITDA was $5.6 million, a significant $4.1 million increase on the prior year with a significantly improved EBITDA margin now at 8.6%. The mechanical and ADAS business capacity increased through the expansion of our ADAS calibration and mechanical service offering with further opportunity available through expansion where opportunity exists within the current network.

This will continue to grow positively and make a substantial contribution to the group's profitability, delivering additional incremental EBITDA in FY '27. Development plans continue with further expansion planned for a business that is quickly becoming a meaningful part of our diversified group earnings.

The Prestige sites in FY '26 revenue and EBITDA were ahead of the prior financial year. Improvements were driven by best practice operational models being embedded, consistency continuing to enhance capability, which is strengthening our financial performance.

We have achieved good progress at the 2 Queensland sites, while the 2 sites in Victoria have been impacted by lower available volume. We have strengthened our relationships across our key OEM and insurance partners.

Now on to Slide 9, our ACM Parts business. ACM Parts is producing consistent profitability month-on-month.

The ACM Parts pre-AASB 16 normalized EBITDA was $2.3 million, up $7 million on the prior financial year. There was a significant uplift in the financial performance as key initiatives relating to recycled, parallel and aftermarket parts and consumables have yielded very positive results.

There will be ongoing investment in inventory management and digital sales channels, improving customer access and margins. The network optimization strategy has been very successful with the relocation of our site in Queensland to a more fit-for-purpose facility now complete and some further optimization works underway in our Western Australian facility.

Procurement continues to be one of the business' biggest opportunities with continued focus on supply chain and procurement efficiency and sustainability, the initiatives are ongoing. ACM now is also a strategically important part of our diversified group earnings and repair network capability and provides a positive differentiation to our market competitors and a significant competitive advantage.

I will now hand you over to Dom to take you through the group financials.

Domenic Romanelli

Thanks, Ray, and good morning, everyone. Slide 11 is a summary of the full year FY '26 financial performance.

The financial performance is presented on a post-AASB 16 basis below EBITDA. However, we have included supplementary analysis on Slide 19, which provides a comparison of full year FY '26 results on a pre- and post-AASB 16 basis.

As Ray has outlined, our FY '26 financial performance was a continued improvement on FY '25. With revenues up $25.4 million or 2.5% to a record $1,039 million and a normalized pre-AASB 16 EBITDA of $68 million, up $5.4 million or 8.6% on FY '25.

This reflected an EBITDA margin improvement from 6.2% to 6.5% for FY '26. This uplift was largely driven by continued operational performance improvement of our AMA Collision, Specialist and ACM Parts businesses.

Finance costs in total were down $8.7 million for FY '26. Finance costs other reduced by $12.7 million for the full year due to the improved cost of funding and debt levels following the refinancing of the group's senior bank debt in the prior financial year.

The prior period included one-off impacts from prior refinancing activities. This benefit was partially offset by an increase of $4 million in the finance costs for our leases, reflecting the increase in market rents and interest rates.

The increase in income tax expense reflects the uplift in earnings, particularly within the Capital SMART tax group and the prior year underprovision adjustment has been corrected during the financial year. These movements resulted in net profit after tax of $7.7 million versus a net loss after tax of $6.2 million in FY '25.

The normalizations we have called out for FY '26 relate to site closure, relocation and restructuring costs. The normalization in the corresponding period of $3.5 million related to a legal settlement claim relating to an earnout of an acquisition that took place in 2018.

Pleasingly, with the net profit after tax produced in FY '26, together with strong operating cash flows and a robust balance sheet, the Board determined it appropriate to declare a fully franked dividend of $0.05 per share. This is the first dividend AMA has declared since 2019.

Turning to Slide 12 and the summary financial position. We ended the full year to 30 June 2026 with net debt of $18.4 million, a slight increase from the 30 June 2025 balance of $17.7 million.

The group continues to meet all its financial covenants and expects to operate within them for the next 12 months. We also completed a 1 for 10 share consolidation during the financial year.

The group maintains a disciplined approach to capital management. And with our strong balance sheet and operating cash flows, we are well placed to actively manage capital expenditure to deliver organic growth, funding M&A activity to deliver inorganic growth, initiation of a dividend program, first time since 2019 and buying back shares via the program initiated this year.

Now to Slide 13. The group had positive operating cash flows of $32.8 million for the full financial year of FY '26 once the principal elements of lease payments are taken into account.

This was $11.3 million lower than FY '25 and was predominantly due to an increase of $11.6 million in income tax payments as our profits grew and we utilized our historical tax revenue losses within the Capital SMART income tax group. FY '26 saw capital expenditure payments of $30.3 million, a similar figure to the prior financial year.

We anticipate capital expenditure to be around $35 million in FY '27 with regular maintenance CapEx in the range of $12.5 million to $15 million on an annual basis. We expect this level of capital expenditure to decrease once we complete the catch-up capital expenditure from the prior financial years.

You should also note that within our operating cash outflows that there were $6 million of cash payments relating to nonrecurring expenditure. That is make good, lease costs on hibernated sites and redundancies.

The group has a healthy cash position at 30 June 2026. Turning to Slide 14.

Normalized corporate costs were $10.1 million, $0.3 million lower than the prior financial year. We anticipate that these will be in the range of $12 million to $13 million in FY '27, predominantly from a higher LTI expense in the coming financial year.

Slides 18 to 21 provide supplementary financial information that will assist with the analysis. I'll now hand back to Ray.

Raymond Smith-Roberts

Thank you, Dom. Now to Slide 16 and the outlook.

AMA Group continues to progress on its journey of achieving a pre-AASB 16 EBITDA percentage of 10% within 3 years by leveraging our vertically integrated structure and widening value chain. Capital SMART is expecting another strong result in FY '27 with an EBITDA margin in the range of 10% to 11%.

It will achieve this result from initiatives to improve market share of Suncorp's total claims and initiatives to expand its customer base and service lines with a view to growth. AMA Collision will continue to implement operational capability improvements with continued focus and investment on the network footprint optimization, further improvement in margins and profitability will continue in the new financial year.

Wales is expected to have a better year in FY '27 with heavy mix showing improvement and nontraditional revenue streams now gaining momentum. The Specialist business is expecting further growth in FY '27 also.

In the mechanical and ADAS business, the road map to capture greater level of our mechanical and ADAS service is being rolled out together with meeting the growth in ADAS demand. And our Prestige sites are continuing to embed best practice operational models and explore growth opportunities.

ACM will also continue to grow and improve its profitability in FY '27. It provides a positive differentiation to our market competitors and a competitive advantage.

Future dividends are expected with the initiation of our dividend program for the first time since 2019. FY '27 financial year, we expect further growth with a normalized pre-AASB 16 to be in the range of $75 million to $80 million, subject to ordinary business trading conditions.

Dom and I will now address any questions that you may have. Please note that you may submit your questions through the webcast facility.

Operator

[Operator Instructions]. Your first question is a phone question from Jared Gelsomino with Morgans.

Jared Gelsomino

Congratulations on plan of growth next year looks quite positive. I probably just interested a little bit in terms of the change in stance on ACM.

I mean you seem to have stabilized that business and now very much speaking to it as an integral part of the group. Could you maybe just touch on that a little bit?

Raymond Smith-Roberts

Thanks, Jared. Yes.

Look, there's no doubt there is an evolution of how we're viewing that done in the last 12 months. And we're definitely now in a position where the business is going well, and we see plenty of opportunity going forward.

Obviously, I go back 18 months, when there was a lot of things happening, there was -- business was in a different position, and we had a bunch of priorities and there was some concern about what we could do collectively or holistically across it. And the reality is I've been able to work really well with the team.

We've got some very good people, and we've made a lot of changes and it's coming along well. And that's now forming a very important part of what we're doing with positive contribution consistently.

We certainly see a bit more of a runway for those earnings or the quality of those earnings to continue to improve as well as some continual growth. So it's not really for sale anymore, and it's definitely helping amongst our overall service offering.

And when you're a company of our size and scale, an integrated supply company working properly is actually a strong advantage. It wasn't working properly, but it now is.

Jared Gelsomino

Yes. No, that's clear.

And maybe just 1 or 2 more just on the collision business and trying to understand the composition of that second half. I mean I understand there's typically a seasonally stronger fourth quarter, and you did have good growth on the PCP.

But I guess it probably does seem to be a little bit impacted by maybe some consumer pressures through the fourth quarter. Could you maybe just speak to collision in the fourth quarter?

And I guess, whether that's most of that pressure maybe is localized in specific regions such as Victoria and sort of how that group has performed?

Raymond Smith-Roberts

When we look at collision holistically, we've made good progress, but there's no hiding the fact. We've still got a fair bit of work to do.

There's been a lot of transformational activity, and we really embarked on a bit of a change program from around December this year and getting that embedded and everything working properly. We're still on the journey to how underlying volumes in this last quarter have been hard.

There's no 2 ways about it. We would normally see a volume improvement generally in quarter 4.

It's a busy time. Now the general economic factors, cost of living, interest rates, a range of things have, we didn't see a significant downturn from where the volumes have been, but they certainly didn't increase what we generally see them do.

So again, we were hoping for -- more volume always makes things a bit easier. The volume wasn't everywhere that we would expect it to be, in some cases, down a bit.

So it's tracking well. We've still got a lot of work to do in getting our footprint right, the processes right, everything we -- we've got some parts of the network working really well.

We've got some parts of the network we're still working through. So I suppose overall, the progress a little bit slower than what I would have liked or what I anticipated in terms of the full year and understanding where we are in the journey and the job.

There's lots happening with people, lots of positive things where it's a combination of available work and available capability and available capacity. So all of those things are being worked on together.

And as I say, it is going well, but it's not just the volume -- more volume always helps. We can't ever get away from that.

The volumes aren't disastrous. They just didn't kick up like we expect they normally do.

And the kickup is not significant, but it generally is higher through that last quarter.

Jared Gelsomino

Yes. That makes sense.

And sorry, just last one, just on the collision network. I mean, you still sort of seem to be rationalizing the sites and you're still obviously working through that broader optimization piece.

But I guess just trying to understand how much further network rationalization would be expected before it's probably considered stabilized and you can maybe look to start rolling out net new sites year-on-year?

Raymond Smith-Roberts

Yes. Look, I'm not completely clear on the timing of what's left to go.

I mean we've got key plans. The reality is the dynamic of the market continues to move a little bit.

So some of those are based around things that you don't have complete view of in terms of areas and PMAs in particular market shares. Right now, we're seeing demand in Queensland is very good.

Demand in Western Australia is very good. Demand in South Australia is stable.

New South Wales, in our collision network, we're not significantly represented, but we do have New South Wales and ACT. We have a number of sites.

Victoria is difficult, and we may still need to do a little bit more in Victoria because we have a very significant footprint in Victoria. And we've got some other areas.

So there's a few more planned for the moment, and that's more about, again, rationalization. And then in other areas, we do need to expand.

So there's always work to do on it. I wouldn't say that it's ever going to be done, but you're always -- there's less to fine-tune.

So there's probably 2 or 3 more key areas and then just continue fine-tuning going forward.

Operator

Your next question is from Chris Savage with Bell Potter.

Chris Savage

Just a follow-on on the volumes. How are they tracking so far in Q1?

That's also obviously another typical strong quarter for you.

Raymond Smith-Roberts

Yes, they're going okay. They haven't gotten any worse, but they haven't gotten a lot better either.

So they're remaining fairly consistent through what we saw in May and June really. So where they didn't uptick in some sort of -- we don't have as much uptick in this first quarter, but they're generally strong.

They're holding fairly consistent. There are some green shoots.

There are some areas, as I say, we've got parts of the country that there's very high demand. And look, with the delay in -- we're seeing some consumers, and I wouldn't say it's systemic in everywhere, but there is -- people are delaying minor repairs.

They're delaying minor spend. So there is a skew our severity rate is going up.

Our average repair price is going up. And we certainly in collision seeing a skew to more nondrivable work in the mix of what we would normally do.

As I said, there are some opportunities. They're not getting any worse.

They're not getting significantly better. So we're seeing fairly stable.

Chris Savage

So when you say the guidance is subject to ordinary business trading conditions, are you assuming an uplift in the average from what was it 4.7 in FY '26? Or are you assuming fairly flat average repair volumes?

Raymond Smith-Roberts

We're not assuming significant uplift in volume in those numbers. We're just -- we're hoping that the world settles down and doesn't get much worse.

Chris Savage

Sure. And just lastly, like you've reinstated or restarted the dividends.

You've got an active buyback. Where is the priority between those 2 and then also potentially M&A as well?

Raymond Smith-Roberts

Look, I think we're in a very good position with I mean someone used the words to me the other day, bulletproof balance sheet. I thought that was a little bit optimistic, but we have a very strong balance sheet.

And from a priority point of view, I think it's important and the Board is taking a very balanced view. We believe we're undervalued, and we will utilize the share buyback program if appropriate or if the share price remains as subdued as it is.

We felt it was important to reinstate the dividend plan. It's been a long time since we've been in an NPAT situation and paying dividends again for the first time a long and supportive share group and to be able to give them something back was important to us and important to show the robustness in where we are.

And the growth is also important as well. I still have a good opportunity, and we've got a bit of work to do in our organic growth, but that still requires some expenditure to unlock it.

But as we move through that and I look further forward, we will definitely be back in a more active inorganic growth capacity, I think as we move through this year.

Operator

Your next question comes from Warren Jeffries with Canaccord.

Warren Jeffries

Just a quick one. Just on the CapEx, Dom, so $35 million into '27.

And then does it moderate over '28? Or do you sort of step to straight down to that sort of $12.5 million to $15 million?

Domenic Romanelli

I think it might -- I think at the moment, it does move. It depends, as Ray says, it depends on how things move.

But I would say it starts to moderate during FY '28 before settling in FY '29.

Warren Jeffries

Right. So $12.5 million to $15 million to FY '29 sort of expect.

Domenic Romanelli

It's our regular maintenance CapEx, yes.

Raymond Smith-Roberts

The network is in better and better shape, guys, lots of things. We've still got a bit of work to do in areas, but it's not a mountain like it was.

Warren Jeffries

And most of that has been directed towards Capital SMART. Is that right?

Raymond Smith-Roberts

It's a bit of both. We've spent a bit of money on a range of things, but it's where we're getting the most payoff.

So that's where we always prioritize based on outcome. And we certainly regulate our capital expenditure based on what's going on in the world as well.

So we don't just roll out a lock-in plan. But I'm very focused on investing it where I know it's going to give us the best benefit.

Warren Jeffries

And that corporate overhead, is that sort of bounces around quarter-to-quarter, but is it settling around that $10 million to $11 million per annum? Or is it...

Domenic Romanelli

I actually guided in the presentation, we think it will be around $12 million to $13 million, because the LTI expense will come up a little bit in the next financial year. So that $12 million to $13 million is what I think is an appropriate number.

Operator

[Operator Instructions]. Your next question is a webcast question from Yaron [indiscernible] who asks, are there any debt facility restrictions that impact on quantum of buying back shares or paying out dividends?

Domenic Romanelli

Yaron, yes, there is. There's a restriction up to NPAT.

It's something that we're looking at. And when I talk to the banks towards the -- start talking to them towards the end of this calendar year, it will be something I'll have a chat with them.

But at the moment, there's a restriction to NPAT.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr.

Smith-Roberts for closing remarks.

Raymond Smith-Roberts

Thank you, everyone. It's fairly easy on us today.

I appreciate you taking the time to listen. We'll obviously have a number of one-on-one meetings and broader group meetings over the following week.

But look, the team have done a very good job. We're always working to improve more.

I would like to always want to achieve more, but I think we've got a very firm foundation. I'm very focused and very pleased with the road ahead.

I look at where we are. It's a lot of work to get here, but I'm excited about where we're going.

I think the broad value chain that we're developing in the business gives us a very key competitive advantage going forward. Our mechanical and ADAS business has moved ahead in strides.

Our parts business is moving ahead. That combined with our core repair capability is giving us a very significant opportunity to talk to our key customers about diversity of services and products and ways to solve their problems that we've never been able to do properly before.

And weaving this together, we do the right volume and really value, should I say, and really being able to look across the group and how we solve solutions and provide opportunities that we haven't been able to do before, puts me in a very positive mindset about what the future is looking like. So I appreciate your time.

Appreciate your support. Look forward to talking to many of you further, and thanks to all of our people that have made this possible.

Operator

That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating.

You may now disconnect.